What does ^ (caret) mean in Java [duplicate]

Question

What does the ^ (caret) mean in Java syntax? Why does 6^3 return 5?

Answer 1

It's the bitwise XOR operator. XOR is exclusive or.

6 in binary (lets assume 4 bits) is 0110, 3 in binary is 0011.

So, we get:

0110
0011 XOR
----
0101

And 0101 is 5.